BALIBAR, East Timor (AFP) ― Voting began Saturday in East Timor’s presidential election, seen as a crucial test for a young democracy taking charge of its own security as U.N. forces prepare to leave.

Polls opened shortly after 7:00 a.m., with voters ready to cast ballots in a contest that pits the incumbent Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel laureate, against 11 other hopefuls.

At a schoolhouse in the village of Balibar in the hills overlooking the capital Dili, poll workers in yellow T-shirts unsealed blue plastic boxes of ballots delivered under U.N. Police protection and waited for voters, including Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Timorese, voting in only the country’s second presidential election as an independent nation, must cast their ballots in districts where they are registered.

Turnout was thin in the early morning but was expected to pick up, with many regarding the elections as a chance to make their voices heard.

As polls, opened people in this impoverished half-island nation went about their morning business, many walking barefoot for their daily shopping at ramshackle road stands selling vegetables and fruit.

The vote is the first in a series of key events in the chronically unstable country, still traumatized by Indonesia’s brutal 24-year occupation which ended with a vote for independence in 1999.

In May, East Timor will celebrate 10 years of independence, which came after three years of U.N. administration. Then, in June, voters will choose a new government in a general election.

At the end of the year the nation of 1.1 million people bids goodbye to U.N. forces stationed in the country since 1999.

Constitutionally, the presidency is largely a ceremonial role, but its profile has been boosted by Ramos-Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with East Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for his work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.

Ramos-Horta, who survived a 2008 assassination attempt, is the second post-independence president after Gusmao ― a former anti-Indonesia rebel leader.

The race is expected to be a three-way contest between Ramos-Horta, the Fretilin party’s Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres and former armed forces chief Taur Matan Ruak.

Ramos-Horta won in a second-round of voting against Guterres in 2007, buoyed by the support of Gusmao’s National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT) party.

But this time the party is backing Ruak, amid signs that the president and prime minister no longer see eye-to-eye on many issues. Ramos-Horta has been increasingly critical of Gusmao’s government.

Ruak, who did not run in the 2007 election, is regarded as a hero for his record as a guerrilla leader during Indonesia’s occupation and is seen as the wild card in Saturday’s poll.

Rallies by Guterres and Ruak pulled in the largest number of supporters during the two-week campaign period.

Last year the UN officially handed security responsibilities back to East Timor police, although around 1,200 U.N. forces remain in the country.

The country’s own security forces will officially safeguard the elections but U.N. forces are ready to step in if needed, Ameerah Haq, the U.N. Secretary General’s special representative for East Timor, told AFP.

Candidates must garner more than 50 percent of the vote for an outright win, otherwise a run-off will be held in two weeks.

Formal results from Saturday’s polling are not expected until early next week.

International observers and representatives from Australia, the European Union and Portuguese-speaking nations are monitoring the polls.